This photo portrait project uses found oppositional artefacts : the “Political Police” shield, a plastic Anonymous mask, a paper mask representing anarchopanda worn to contest bylaw P6, the red tuque of the Montreal Police Fraternity (MPF) and the black flag they often hung from patrol car windows. All were acquired during demonstrations in Montréal.

(photo: COBP) Montréal, 15 mars 2015.

The (re)mediation and the combination of these four or five oppositional symbols transforms them. Their combination mingles police and political repression of the struggle against austerity and the police to protest against that same.

The MPF tuque is a symbol that blends the Fraternity’s fight against austerity to preserve their pension fund from government cuts, as well as a symbol of police repression. The Montréal police wear this tuque (as well as a variety of camouflage pants) as a pressure tactic, while they kettle protestors and make mass-arrests during Printemps 2015 demonstrations against the same austerity measures they themselves oppose. During the May 1st demonstration in Montréal, I found the MPF car window flag, I later included in the portrait series.